Family History and the Global Politics of DNA
-
Sarah Abel
and
Krystal S. Tsosie
Abstract
The global DNA ancestry industry appeals to various “markets”: diasporic groups seeking to reconstruct lost kinship links; adoptees looking for biological relatives; genealogists tracing their family trees; and those who are merely curious about what DNA can reveal about their identity. However, the language of empowerment and openness employed by DNA ancestry-testing companies in their publicity materials masks the important commercial and private interests at stake. Drawing particularly on the experiences of Native and Indigenous American communities, this article highlights some of the contradictions and dilemmas engendered by the industry, and questions to what extent its practices can empower users without infringing upon the rights of other groups.
Article Note
This contribution began as an email dialogue between Sarah Abel and Krystal Tsosie, which was then edited for publication.
© 2019 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Section on family history, edited by Tanya Evans and Jerome de Groot
- Emerging questions in family history studies
- Introduction: Emerging Directions for Family History Studies
- Family History and the Global Politics of DNA
- Family History Collaborators in Conversation
- “The Genealogical sublime”: An Interview with Julie Creet
- The Roles of Authenticity and Immediacy in Engaging Family Historians in Online Learning Designed to Advance Academic Skills
- Practical Solutions: Genealogy and the Potential of Public Pedagogy in Poland
- Conversation
- “A Fool’s errand”: Lonnie Bunch and the Creation of the National Museum of African American History and Culture
- PH in
- Some Reflections on Public History in Canada Today
- Reviews
- Andersen, Tea Sindbæk and Barbara Törnquist-Plewa: Disputed Memory: Emotions and Memory Politics in Central, Eastern and South-Eastern Europe
- Paul Ashton and Alex Trapeznik: What is Public History Globally? Working with the Past in the Present
Articles in the same Issue
- Section on family history, edited by Tanya Evans and Jerome de Groot
- Emerging questions in family history studies
- Introduction: Emerging Directions for Family History Studies
- Family History and the Global Politics of DNA
- Family History Collaborators in Conversation
- “The Genealogical sublime”: An Interview with Julie Creet
- The Roles of Authenticity and Immediacy in Engaging Family Historians in Online Learning Designed to Advance Academic Skills
- Practical Solutions: Genealogy and the Potential of Public Pedagogy in Poland
- Conversation
- “A Fool’s errand”: Lonnie Bunch and the Creation of the National Museum of African American History and Culture
- PH in
- Some Reflections on Public History in Canada Today
- Reviews
- Andersen, Tea Sindbæk and Barbara Törnquist-Plewa: Disputed Memory: Emotions and Memory Politics in Central, Eastern and South-Eastern Europe
- Paul Ashton and Alex Trapeznik: What is Public History Globally? Working with the Past in the Present
